The Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures stipulates that the local taxes of municipalities, counties, and cities include land tax, house tax, vehicle license tax, deed tax, stamp tax, amusement tax, and special tax, among which land tax is divided into land value tax, land tax (collection has been suspended since the second period of 1978), and land value increment tax.
Local taxation began to utilize information technology applications to replace manual work in 1978. At that time, contractors are commissioned to establish the house and land tax registration files, handle tax bills for house tax, land value tax, land tax and other tax, and print tax related booklets. In the following year, two tax collection offices in Taichung County and Kaohsiung City were selected for trial installation of small computers; in 1986, the full-scale installation of various tax collection offices in Taiwan and Penghu was completed, and in 1989, the “Five-year development plan for tax automation” was implemented.
Local taxation is inextricably linked to people’s lives. Taking land value increment tax as an example, in accordance with the Equalization of Land Rights Act, landowners selling their own residential land, of which the urban land area does not exceed 3 hectares or the non-urban land area does not exceed 7 hectares, can enjoy a preferential tax rate for self-use housing once in their life.
In order to facilitate public inquiries and control the reuse of relevant preferential measures, the Ministry of Finance has developed the “Landowner’s Application for Land Value Increment Tax Inquiry System Applicable to Residential Land Tax Rates for Self-use”, and has gradually built an inquiry system for use by local tax collection agencies. Inquiry items include relevant information such as cancellation, revocation, and correction, open online query related functions, and integrate information such as cadastral, land price change files, agricultural land inheritance, and gift control cases transferred by land administration units, making related query services complete and convenient for the people.
The development of local tax information systems has spanned over 30 years. The Ministry of Finance and the tax collection departments used various computer mainframes from different brands from 1981 to 2003. Since each mainframe uses a dedicated system for internal operations, the external communication functions are also different, leading to many difficulties caused by a heavy workload for system development and maintenance, a lack of data sharing across systems, and inability to meet the evolving needs of users.
After the 1990s, due to the rapid development of information technology, most of the computer mainframes owned by local tax collection agencies have exceeded their service life, and some mainframes have been discontinued, making maintenance difficult. The hardware and software of local systems urgently needs a full update due to tax digitalization requirements.
In 1993, the Executive Yuan promulgated the “Common Specifications for Government Agencies Information”, which stipulates the purpose of information exchange on heterogeneous platforms such as interoperability and portability among government agencies. In 1996, the MOF announces the “Guidelines for the Basic Standards of Requirements”, establishing the ministry’s policy direction regarding information system planning towards an “open operating platform”.
In October 2000, the Ministry of Finance submitted the “Local Taxation Information Operation Platform Transfer Plan”, creating a new local taxation information operation platform that adopts a decentralized master-slave structure, and is established with large-scale data servers and centralized data in the Ministry of Finance’s FIA. The database stores the tax records and collection data of each tax item in each county and city. The connection operation of the local tax collection agency is equipped with a medium-sized workstation that connects with the centralized database. The project aims to streamline the tax information operation environment, enhance the restructuring of business operations, and develop the software and hardware operation framework into an open platform, thus achieving information exchange between national and local tax applications, strengthening overall monitoring, preventing tax evasion, and establishing a fair taxation environment. However, because some local tax collection agencies did not agree with the plan structure, following the implementation of local self-government ordinances and regulations, the process was postponed after the central and local governments could not reach an agreement on the apportionment method of the project’s required funds.
At the 39th National Taxation Conference Report in 2002, the Ministry of Finance finally reached an agreement with local tax collection agencies. The central government would be responsible for the overall development costs of the application system, and the local governments would be responsible for the hardware and software equipment costs. It was decided to invite local tax collection agencies across the country to jointly discuss information system, replace host operations, and promote business.
In April 2003, the Taxation Administration of the Ministry of Finance signed and approved the funds for the construction of common software to be partially borne by the Ministry of Finance, the coordinated development of application systems and programs, and provision to local tax collection agencies as old servers are replaced.
In May 2003, the FIA of the Ministry of Finance assisted the Tax Collection Office of Taichung City to hold a seminar on the “local tax information operation platform transfer plan”, and compiled the nationwide “local tax information application software construction plan”, which was reported to the Executive Yuan, and approved for implementation in July of the same year.
In January 2004, the bidding process for relevant procurement cases were completed. In March of the same year, the system development, design, and environment construction were completed. In November, the application system integration test was completed. At the end of the year, Taipei City, Taipei County, Hsinchu City, Taichung City, and Chiayi City were selected. The new system was piloted with six local tax collection offices including Tainan County. In the following year, the platform system installation, testing, launch, and verification of the other 19 local tax collection agencies were completed, and personnel education and training were conducted to facilitate the connection with the new local tax information operation platform.
In 2006, the local tax collection agencies of 25 counties and cities in the Taiwan-Fujian area fully implemented the new local tax system under the electronic network structure of the new platform web browser, and can also connect with the national taxation bureaus, supervisory agencies, and township and municipal offices for information exchange.
In January 2008, the “Local Tax Online Filing System” was promoted.
In May 2008, the system development design and system integration test of the “Local Tax Online Filing Operation” was completed, and the first trial run was completed by the Taipei County Government’s Revenue Service Office, and in October of the same year, the system was fully extended to 24 counties and municipalities in the Taiwan-Fujian region, making the tax filing channel more convenient and diversified for the public, and fulfilling the policy goal of the Executive Yuan of e-government.
In July 2009, the “Integrated System for House Tax and Land Value Tax External Inspection” project was promoted. In 2009, the integration and application planning of the local tax information platform was conducted through the “The Taxation Information System Reform Project”. In April 2011, the “The Taxation Information System Reform Project” was completed. In September of the same year, all of the interviews and analysis on system requirements were completed. In 2012, system design, program design, and system testing were completed. In November 2013, it was fully launched in 22 county and city local tax collection agencies, providing an integrated and high-quality tax environment offering access to cross-tax items, cross-platform, and cross-organization data. This also served to consolidate national and local tax information resources, promote the exchange of national and local tax information, and strengthen the function and quality of tax services. When the warranty period expired in 2014, according to the above-mentioned construction contract, two 3-year maintenance service contracts were outsourced from 2015 to 2020, to continue the maintenance and regular operations of the local tax platform.
In line with the tax restructuring plan, the local tax network filing system of municipalities, cities, and counties is integrated, and resources are centralized and managed upward. In January 2012, the contract for the outsourcing service of the overall information operation of local tax online filing was completed. The system was fully launched in 2013, and the percentage of local tax online filing has grown from 71.2% in 2013 to 91.6% in 2016.
In order to promote the integration of real estate transfer process and construct cross-agency web-based integration service, the contract of “Taxation Service Renewal Project – Real Estate Transfer Web-based Integration Service” was completed in April 2017 for a four-year period (construction in 2017 and maintenance from 2018 to 2020). The company has introduced a pilot service to help the public apply for real estate transfer by using dynamic dashboards and simple process version according to the various cases of real estate transfer. In May 2017, with the efforts of the four major convenience stores companies and Financial Information Service Co., the integration of public and private sector resources was completed, allowing people to go to their nearest convenience store to reprint tax bills and pay directly at the counter during the vehicle license tax, house tax, and land value tax periods to improve the quality of service.
In January 2018, the real estate transfer online integration service website went online to provide local tax online filing services, and the FIA conducted planning operations for the integration of national tax and land information.
On June 19, 2018, the vehicle license tax self-levy system was officially launched in response to the self-levy operations of 22 country and city tax collection authorities nationwide.
In September 2018, filers logging into the “Local Tax Online Filing System” for real estate transfer operations can use their Citizen Digital Certificate or National Health Insurance card with registration password to survey for their own cadaster and building information, and the system will automatically bring in the application form on the system, saving people the time to log in for operations and the cost of applying for cadaster and building transcripts.
In October 2018, during the levy periods of the vehicle license tax for the second half of the year, a new login mechanism by entering license plate and National ID No. was added to the supplementary bill payment service of the KIOSK of convenience stores.
During the November 2018 land value tax period, a new National Health Insurance card login mechanism has been added to the supplementary bill payment service at convenience stores’ KIOSKs.
In November 2018, the Land Value Tax e-payment or transfer payment certificate application service was brought online, providing email delivery of electronic files of payment or transfer payment certificates. This measure also achieved the goals of energy saving, carbon reduction, and simplification of public administration.
In July 2019, the integration of the real estate transfer service with local and national taxes was completed. The filing of local taxes online can be connected with gift tax and estate tax cases, allowing for an integrated system for filing real estate transfer, local taxes, and national taxes, and providing more streamlined services for the public.
In July 2019, the inter-agency interface system between taxation and land administration was completed for the real estate transfer online integration service. A trial run was piloted in seven counties and cities, including Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Hsinchu City, Taichung City, Tainan City, and Kaohsiung City.
On December 31, 2019, the Fiscal Information Agency, MOF and the Department of Land Administration, MOI jointly held the “Real Estate Transfer One-Stop Service Press Conference” to explain the results of the pilot program.
In January 2020, the “Electronic Filing Operation Regulations for Land Value Increment Tax and Deed Tax and Stamp Duty” will be revised to provide a non-counter check service so that people can file their land value increment tax and deed tax for simple cases online.
In November 2019, the MOF cooperated with the Ministry of the Interior to be the first inter-ministerial agency to use the TW FidO mobile authentication service of the Ministry of the Interior, and applied the authentication service to the land value tax online inquire and payment system and the Kiosk land value tax supplementary bill payment service for convenience stores.
On September 1, 2020, the one-stop service for real estate transfer will be extended to the whole country, and the public can file the land value increment tax and deed tax for real estate transfer online without having to apply in person at the counter.
In 2021, the MyData platform of the National Development Council (NDC) will be used as a service provider to provide “house tax-related certificate applications” to the public, and the service was approved by the NDC on January 13, 2022 and launched on February 7 of the same year.
The local tax online filing system is in line with the Ministry of the Interior’s implementation of the “Mobile Citizen Digital Certificate System” and will integrate the “Taiwan Mobile Identification System (TW FidO)” in February 2022 to support both TW FidO and the Mobile Citizen Digital Certificate System.
The Tax Information System Reform Project expired on December 26, 2014. According to the requirements for subsequent expansion of the request for proposals for the case, the first and second phases of maintenance will be continued until December 26, 2020. However, there is still a need for continuous maintenance of taxation information system-related application systems and software and hardware equipment. In September 2020, the bidding and signing of the “Outsourcing Service of Continued Maintenance on the Local Tax Reform System” was completed, and the contract period is from December 27, 2020, to December 26, 2023.
The current local tax platform has reached the end of its life cycle for hardware and software support, and the number of cases and data for public services is growing year by year. The need is urgent to start replacing equipment and updating the system to ensure the effective operation and execution of local tax collection and collection business. Therefore, the "Constructing next generation local tax information services outsourcing open bid" was completed in May 2023, and it is expected to be fully launched in the local tax collection agencies of 22 counties and cities in January 2025. It will provide a cross-tax, cross-platform, and cross-agency integrated high-quality tax service environment. The contract period is from May 24, 2023 to December 31, 2026.